Ha Ling - October 31, 2009

Ha Ling
Canmore Alberta
October 31, 2009

This was my first time hiking up Ha Ling.  I had purposely pushed it off because I knew from talking to many people that it is a year round peak that can be done in virtually all weather conditions, minus the ever potentially deadly thunderstorm, as such this is often many people's first real peak.  Thankfully the Canadian Rockies don't see many thunderstorms in October and since Halloween fell on a Saturday and was forecast to be a great day weather wise a group of 8 of us from the University of Calgary Outdoor Adventurers Group decided to schedule an outing.

Ha Ling is located behind Canmore Alberta, on Spray Lakes Road.  To access the trail head you drive past the Canmore Nordic Centre and continue along Spray Lakes Road until you reach the Goat Creek parking lot.  This parking lot is also the traditional starting point for scrambling the East end of Rundle as well as Lawrence Grassi, both peaks bookend Ha Ling.

Typical trail up Ha Ling

The Ha Ling trail starts on a very distinct forest trail and quickly starts switch backing the backside of the mountain.  We found the trail to be a little slippery however in some places some "steps" have been built into the the trail, these usually occur at the steeper sections or sections where the trail needed to be reinforced.  Minus some rocks and exposed roots, there was very little to worry about.  Unfortunately while in the treeline, there is also very little scenery and as such its hard to tell how much elevation you are gaining.  After about 30 minutes of hiking the trail encounters a few openings in the trees that provides views towards the Goat Range to the west.  This is our first indication of the actual elevation that you have gained.  After about another 45 minutes on the trail, the scenery begins to open up more and more until eventually you break the treeline and are presented a large scree slope that take you directly to the summit.  All you have to do is pick one of the many trails that zig-zag up this slope, some more direct and steeper, some more circuitous and less steep.

The Goat Range from treeline trail

Shortly after breaking the treeline, we all had to stop and add a layer of clothing. The wind that we were blocked from in the trees dropped the temperature a good 10-15C on the exposed slope and any sweat that we had worked up in the forest was quickly freezing and threatening both frostbite and hypothermia. Unfortunately one of our fellow hikers who had unwittingly chosen to hike in jeans (extremely low thermal capacity - ability to hold heat) and could not continue much beyond the treeline and had to turn back. It is strongly recommended that people realise that hiking in trees is always warmer and even in the winter hiking in trees at a moderate to fast pace can cause sweating and as such is always good to carry an extra layer of insulating outerwear. It is also at this point that many people will pull out their hiking poles if they haven't already for that little added bit of stability and help.

The nice thing about hiking on scree in the winter is that it is often more firm and doesn't slide underneath you as much.  As we hit the scree slope, we all chose the same path to the summit, it wasn't the most direct nor was it the most wide-sweeping and gentle.  The wind was also nice to us as it scoured the rock and left only small pockets of deep snow on the otherwise clear slope.  Only once on our path did we come across a pocket of wind rowed snow where we found ourselves in knee deep snow, post holing our way to the summit.  The first stop we made en rout to the summit was the Ha Ling Col, that provides your first panoramic view of the goat range and the surrounding mountains.  For the amount of effort, the view is actually quite amazing.

View of the summit from the col

From the col you are probably about 15 minutes to the summit, and the summit comes up fast, there is no foreshortening.  Once on the summit you are provided a pretty decent 360-degree view that includes the town of Canmore and such peaks as Lawrence Grassi, Mt. Grotto, Mt. Lady MacDonald, Mt. Rundle, Sqaw's Tit and several more named and unnamed peaks.  There will also be signs warning people of throwing rocks off the cliff face at the top of the peak as it is a very popular climbing area and tossing/kicking rocks off the side can easily hit a unseen climber coming up the face below you.  The summit also boasts a climber/hiker built wind shelter that you can bunker in for food/water and a rest.

The descent can take one of two ways, either descend directly down to the treeline (quick but some scree skill is needed) or take any of the ascent trails down.  Just remember that as a norm the hikers/climbers coming up  have the right of way as general etiquette.

Overall this trip took approximately 4.5 hours with a brief summit stop.

Summit View (east) from Ha Ling Summit